The Cuban American Bar Association (CABA) and the U.S. State Department held an event on Thursday, April 4 at Ermita de la Caridad, the national shrine of Our Lady of Charity located at 3609 S. Miami Avenue, calling for the release of women being held as political prisoners in Cuba.
The speakers included Frank Mora, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States; Enrique Roig, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Karin Lang, Coordinator for Cuban Affairs, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; Cuban American Bar Association President Javier Alejandro Ley-Soto; and Cuban American Bar Association Board Directors Diana Arteaga, Candice Balmori and Daniel Buigas.
Four former Cuban women political prisoners were honored, Ana Lázara Rodríguez, Genoveva Canabal, Maritza Lugo Fernández and Carmen Arias Iglesias, who shared dramatic accounts of their time in prison and its impact on them and their families. Ambassador Mora also presented each woman with a letter from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In his speech, Ley-Soto said that CABA will continue to stand with the people who fight every day for a free and democratic Cuba, including the political prisoners who remain jailed. He added, “CABA currently represents 52 men and women imprisoned for their actions following the July 11, 2021 peaceful protests on the island.” CABA filed a petition on behalf of the prisoners to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an OAS group seeking the immediate release of these political prisoners.
About the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA)
Founded in 1974, CABA is one of the largest nonprofit bar associations in the state of Florida. Its membership is comprised of lawyers and law students from various backgrounds whose interests include not only those affecting the Cuban community, but human and legal rights’ issues impacting minority communities. CABA also founded CABA Pro Bono Legal Services and the CABA Foundation, both created on the association’s fundamental values to aid those in most need through legal advocacy as well as offering scholarships to law students.
